If you have a room, a closet, a drawer, or a pantry that you want to reorganize, the thing that will help you the most is having a process to follow. For me, I’ve been using the rules I learned back in 2003 from a reality TV show called Clean Sweep any time I am re-working an area in my house. It is because of expert organizers like Peter Walsh that I stick to three main steps for organizing a space when I’m faced with this kind of task.
Function first
Understanding the functionality of anything you’re organizing is essential to either creating or reorganizing a space. Functionality means how the area is going to be used or enjoyed. What this tells you is how you want your area to work for you each day. For me, once I know the functional purposes for a space, I can begin thinking about the look and feel of it, which then helps me to design it. To begin, figure out what absolutely needs to be housed in whatever place you’re revamping. Start with these questions to give you direction if you’re unsure.
Questions about functionality
- What is the biggest item I need to put here?
- Does the area have any natural divides? Are some wider or taller than others?
- Do I have a group or category of items that could fit well in one of the pre-existing structural areas?
- Ideally, how much open space do I want to leave?
- What purpose is the area serving now? Do I want that to change?
- With this new organization, does something else need to move to another area of the house?
The three step process
Step 1: Clean Sweep
The first step is to perform a clean sweep. That means removing every item from the locale under temporary construction. As you do this, create three piles: to keep, to donate, and to throw away. The big idea is that once you have a blank slate, it’s easier to make the tough decisions. Because it’s still challenging to let go of anything we’ve held onto for a while, anticipate a bit of anguish when executing this step.
When it’s time to repopulate, only furniture and pieces that make it into the “keep pile” are granted entrance into the room. Those items that made the cut are based not only on the purpose or functionality of the space, but also on your decorative vision. Your decorative vision is your own. The best way I have found to get ideas for this is to watch shows such as Love It or List It. This one in particular addresses the topic of dysfunctional spots that homeowners want to change.
Step 2: Repurpose what you already have
Any time I am reorganizing a space, I am also assessing what’s missing in it. It could be a lack of containment or the absence of a comfy chair or lamp to create atmosphere. Once I’ve got that list either written down or in my head, I start the hunt. “When you repurpose something, you use it again in an entirely new way.” For us, this means taking a look at what we already have somewhere else in the house, the garage, the attic, or the shed. When I was reorganizing my office, I had a stash of items to take to Goodwill that I had procrastinated on delivering. When I was assessing currently owned pieces, I realized that a pouf ottoman in the pile was perfect for the new look I was creating. Out it came from the back of the van and into the keep pile.
Another example of this step was my scouring for large items to cover a white wall. Since I wanted to start teaching yoga again and engage zoom as an option for doing so, my backdrop needed to look decorative yet spacious to create a Zen atmosphere for recording myself. On my walk about, I found two identical pictures that I liked too much to get rid of, but that had been waiting behind the pantry door for months because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with them. These pictures made it into the mix. Black shelves that used to be in my husband’s office but were now in the garage holding odds and ends satisfied my height and color needs. So, I dusted those off, dragged them inside, and gave them new life. I used the pictures, the pouf, and the shelves to free the room of that bare wall.
Step 3: Get rid of what you don’t need–right away
Remember that donate pile? You absolutely must pack up your ride and head to Goodwill with that stuff. I know we all have good intentions after a clean out of this magnitude. We mistakenly think that we’ll sell some items on eBay or have a garage sale. But–that rarely happens, and then you’re stuck with unsightly clutter piles outside of the room you just clean-sweeped. If you find yourself too tired to complete this step, it’s a good one to delegate it. I recently paid my son $10 to finalize this act when arranging another space. Best ten bucks I ever spent.
Enjoy your reimagined room
Sometimes the clutter problem we are experiencing begins in our minds and with our emotions. I wrote a post about the mental and emotional clutter that was keeping me from reorganizing my office space. The reason this was such a big deal was because I was trying to create a clean slate and begin living the life I’d always dreamed of as a writer. Before I could implement these three steps for organizing a space, I had to get passed those blocks. After dealing with those emotions, I could determine the activities I would be doing in my office on any given day. Then, I could begin the clean out and redecorating process.
A room or closet or pantry is not always in need of the three steps for organizing a space that I’ve shared. Sometimes an area just gets out of hand and needs attention. Often it’s our maintenance strategies that are lacking in that case, which only requires about an hour or two of your time. A complete reorganization, however, is more involved. Give yourself an entire day to devote to it. Plan to have lunch and dinner delivered or ask someone else in the house to be in charge of them. When you’re done, enjoy your reimagined room. Look at it from all angles. Walk out of it completely or turn away from it if it’s smaller and then re-enter or look with fresh eyes several times. Make any adjustments. Finally, invite others to witness your triumph. They may even start to applaud. How great would that be!
